Nycteris grandis grandis, the Large slit-faced bat, is native to south central Africa. It is a member of the family Nycteridae, which is characterized by a large, complex slit-like structure on the face above the nose. The function of this slit, which is surrounded by leaf-like foliations, is unknown. Slit-faced bats are primarily insectivorous, but may occasionally eat small vertebrates (such as frogs or mice) if given the opportunity. They sometimes catch their prey in the air, but frequently glean their prey from surfaces. Their large ears are apparently used to listen for prey-generated sounds (such as the sound of an insect landing on vegetation), which they use to help locate potential food items.

About the Species

This female specimen was collected in Central African Republic: Dzanga-Sangha Forest Reserve on the 9 July 1998 by D.P. Lunde. It was made available to The University of Texas High-Resolution X-ray CT Facility for scanning by Dr. Nancy Simmons of the American Museum of Natural History. Funding for scanning was provided by a National Science Foundation grant (DEB-9873663) to Dr. Simmons, and funding for scanning and image processing was provided by a National Science Foundation Digital Libraries Initiative grant to Dr. Timothy Rowe of The University of Texas at Austin.

About this Specimen

This specimen was scanned by Matthew Colbert on 15 January 2003 along the coronal axis for a total of 1161 slices. The specimen was mounted in florists foam for scanning. Each slice is 0.072 mm thick, with an interslice spacing of 0.072 mm and a field of reconstruction of 67.0 mm.